Madam, could you please tell us about the outstanding results after nearly 4 years of implementing Project 8 "Implementing gender equality and solving urgent issues for women and children" in ethnic minority and mountainous areas?
Ms. Lo Thi Thu Thuy: Implementing the National Target Program 1719, Phase I: from 2021 to 2025, the Government assigned the Vietnam Women's Union to preside over the implementation of Project 8 "Implementing gender equality and solving urgent issues for women and children".
As the agency in charge of implementing Project 8, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union has been active, proactive, focused on directing the implementation, and effectively coordinating the implementation of Project activities such as: Establishing a Central Project Steering Committee with the participation of relevant ministries and branches. Promptly issuing guiding documents and annual implementation plans; proactively proposing to ministries and branches to amend, supplement, and remove obstacles in the implementation process.
With the determination and outstanding efforts of the Women's Union at all levels, the close and effective coordination between the Union and relevant departments at the central and local levels, it has positively impacted the lives, raised awareness, changed the "thinking and working style" of women in particular and people in the community in general, contributing to promoting gender equality in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
The project effectively implemented core indicators, with 02/9 indicators exceeding the set plan. The project paid special attention to establishing and effectively maintaining community-based models concentrated in extremely disadvantaged villages and communes in 40 provinces of Project 8.
As of May 2024, localities have established and operated 8,624/9,000 "Community Communication Teams", communicating to 368,302 people; established and consolidated 1,809/1,000 "Trusted Addresses", supporting and advising about 49,339 women and children, exceeding the target of phase 1; established and maintained 1,556/1,800 "Leaders of Change" Clubs, supporting 135/500 livelihood groups, cooperatives, and cooperatives applying science and technology, reaching 27% of the target of phase 1.
The Union at all levels has organized training on leadership and management skills for 2,611/2,000 female cadres; organized capacity building on gender mainstreaming for cadres in the political system with 271/480 training sessions for 13,179 district and commune cadres; organized 750/1,600 training sessions for 41,614 village/hamlet heads and prestigious people in the community...
At the same time, 1,822/4,400 policy dialogues were organized at the commune and village cluster levels, attracting 105,844 participants, reaching 41.4% of the phase 1 target. For 10 provinces with budget autonomy, the Project's models and activities have been proactively and effectively implemented locally.
In particular, during the implementation of 04 support packages for ethnic minority women to give birth safely and take care of children's health, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union successfully proposed to supplement the travel support regime for mothers when coming to medical facilities for prenatal check-ups 4 times during pregnancy according to the Ministry of Health's instructions: 100,000 VND/person/time and support for a package of birth care supplies for mothers giving birth to 02 or more babies with an additional support of 300,000 VND/package/baby.
As of August 2024, 10/10 provinces implementing the policy package are in areas with a large ethnic minority population and a rate of home births higher than the national average; policy payments have been made to about 6,200 mothers with a total payment of about 7,300 million VND.
During the implementation of Project 8, have you encountered any difficulties or problems? If so, what solutions has the Vietnam Women's Union had to overcome them in order to effectively implement the investment resources of the Project?
Ms. Lo Thi Thu Thuy: In addition to the achieved results, in the process of implementing Project 8, the Association at all levels encountered some difficulties and obstacles. Some targets and activities of the Project were difficult to implement, such as: Supporting the application of science and technology to enhance the economic power of ethnic minority women and the livelihood support model for returning victims of human trafficking were difficult to implement due to the lack/or small number of subjects; the Village/Hamlet Loan Savings Group model could not be implemented due to some related regulations.
Regarding the area and objects of support for implementing intervention activities from Project 8 to date, many places have reached the new rural finish line, so The scope and beneficiaries are narrowed compared to the original design of the Project.
In some localities, funding from local sources has not been arranged to maintain Project 8 models according to the guidance in Circular No. 55/2023/TT-BTC of the Ministry of Finance, leading to the activities of the "Community Communication Team" and the "Leader of Change" Club not achieving the desired results.
To effectively implement the investment resources of the Project, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Women's Union promptly issued documents guiding the removal of obstacles at the grassroots level, regularly organized inspections, supervision, and supported the implementation of activities in localities. At the same time, it issued a document proposing to the agency in charge of the National Target Program 1719 and relevant ministries and branches to support the removal, adjustment/supplementation of general regulations; participated in giving comments on the feasibility study report to adjust some contents of the National Target Program 1719.
According to you, to improve investment efficiency from Project 8, what policies need to be adjusted or supplemented in the coming period ?
Ms. Lo Thi Thu Thuy: Vietnam Women's Union proposed to adjust and supplement some contents of the Project in Decision 1719: In addition to the extremely disadvantaged communes and villages , expand the implementation area of Project 8 to communes and villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas so that the implementation of gender equality in the Program can be approached comprehensively and synchronously in most ethnic minority and mountainous communes, where there are still many urgent issues for women and children, requiring continued intervention and comprehensive and long-term support.
Supplementing the beneficiaries of the policy package to support women in safe childbirth and child health care: Kinh women whose husbands are ethnic minorities residing in difficult areas; travel expenses for mothers taking their 24-month-old children to medical facilities for health check-ups; ethnic minority women giving birth at home with a midwife from the village to attend the birth in areas far from medical facilities.
Propose to adjust the content of "Supporting the application of science and technology to enhance economic empowerment for ethnic minority women, focusing on supporting the establishment of new ones and supporting the application of science and technology for livelihood groups, cooperatives, and cooperatives managed by women, creating jobs for female workers".
In addition, the subjects of implementation of "Piloting and replicating the model of supporting livelihood development and community integration for victims of human trafficking" are added, including: "victims of human trafficking, victims of domestic violence; women who migrate for unsafe labor; women from poor households, women with disabilities" (due to the fact that in localities there are very few/no/difficult to identify subjects eligible for support).
Replace the content "Developing and replicating the self-managed credit savings model" with the content "Implementing communication, training and support activities to enhance women's empowerment in accessing comprehensive finance, promoting financial education for women ".
Currently, although the Party and State pay attention to and care for ethnic minority and mountainous areas, and solve gender issues and social issues in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, many backward customs and practices still persist in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Issues of employment for women and girls, health care, safe motherhood, early marriage, consanguineous marriage, multiple births, domestic violence, etc. are still challenges in the lives of women and children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
To achieve the goals of promoting gender equality in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, in the coming time, it is still necessary to have a separate project under the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas for the period 2026-2030 to continue promoting gender equality and solving urgent issues for women and children in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. Only then will the goal of gender mainstreaming be implemented consistently and throughout the policies of the Party and State.
Source: https://baodantoc.vn/du-an-8-chuong-trinh-mtqg-voi-binh-dang-gioi-o-vung-dtts-va-mien-nui-can-thao-go-vuong-mac-bat-cap-de-trien-khai-hieu-qua-bai-cuoi-1727347121908.htm
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